Table For Two #1 – Formula D

Todays post will be a bit different from my previous posts. Last week my girlfriend and I managed to get away for a vacation. This meant getting to play some board games together. We are both drawn to games initially by either the theme or art. I tend to enjoy playing the same game often, while Ruth is usually happy to play a game a few times and then try another. We are always trying to find games that suit to play as a couple and any new games we play together we will then share our thoughts here on how we thought it worked as a two player game. The first game we tried out on this trip was Formula D.

Formula D is two racing games in one. On one hand you can race Formula One style cars on the iconic track of Monaco and on the other you can race fast and furious on the streets where there is nitro, police and even people shooting at the noisy cars from their windows. The cars move by rolling dice, depending on what gear your car is in you get to roll bigger dice. The game even comes with a fancy gearbox to keep track of your gear and how much spaces each gear allows you to move. There is also a number of different rules you can play with we started our first race with the basic rules to get a feel for the game.

We both enjoyed the game after our first race, I liked the movement mechanic and moving through gears. I liked trying to find the best way to move through corners so I could exit it on the highest gear. However we both agreed that it would be more fun with more cars than just two. There was one point at the very start where Ruth blocked me from exiting at Saint Dévote and I had to take wear from braking but after that our cars didn’t really come close and it felt like we weren’t really racing each other. We then did a second race again on Monaco, this time we were controlling 2 cars each, it was a little more interesting but still not very compelling for us to continue with another race. As you can see below it was quite close at the end but Ruth just managed to hold the lead coming out of the final corner.

We didn’t get around to using the advanced rules or do a street race. Some of the advanced rules seemed fun and I will definitely try them out another time but personally I feel like the game would have been better suited to have been one thing or the other. As a Formula One fan that side of the game appeals to me while I don’t see myself doing a street race, so I would have preferred that the second track to have been another race track. One disappointment though is that I never got to use the 6th gear dice, I convinced Ruth to use it once which subsequently made her car crash in the corner and was out of the race. I think it’s highly unlikely to be used during the races.

In the end we found the game doesn’t suit to play for just the two of us. I enjoyed the game a lot and I am interested in playing the game again except with a larger group, while Ruth would play it again but it wouldn’t be her first choice. If you have any suggestions for games for us to try out, let me know in the comments and maybe we will get around to trying it.